Poll Finds One Quarter of Americans Would Try Cannabis If It Were Legal

In a recent poll presented by YouGov and Huffington Post, 26% of Americans said that they would purchase cannabis if it were legal in their state. That’s right, about one in every four Americans would be willing to take a puff or a nibble or two.

While 12% of that statistic is made up of people who would try it on rare occasions, these numbers are still quite surprising after 70 plus years of prohibition. Only 9% claim they would purchase under current cannabis laws (recreational cannabis is illegal in all but 2 states).

The poll was also revealing in regards to the age ranges of those who are a bit more open-minded about experimenting with cannabis. In people 65 and older, around 9% claimed they would be willing to purchase cannabis at least once or twice if the plant were made legal in their state. This is a fairly significant bump up from the grand total of zero seniors who would be willing to purchase cannabis illegally now.

Unsurprisingly, 35% of respondents under 30 reported that they would buy legal cannabis. Also unsurprisingly, 16% of that demographic is willing to purchase now.

With a hair more than a quarter of Americans a little canna-curious, these statistics hint at the potential size of a U.S. cannabis market. The YouGov/HuffPo poll had a limited sample size of around 1,000 people; a sliver in the near 314 million that currently live in the United States. Yet, if cannabis were destigmatized by state and federal officials, more people than expected may find a little joy in their newly discovered freedom.